8 Asians

“In the aftermath of [Hurricane] Sandy, Chinatown residents need your help! CAAAV offices will be open to collect food/water, batteries, and flashlights. Volunteers are needed to pass out flyers and food, check in on tenants, and more. Also, if have access to a photocopier, please contact them. CAAAV offices are located on 46 Hester Street and will be open starting at 10 am today (Wed).” – via the Asian American Writers’ Workshop

Oh Asians. It’s not good enough to score a perfect 300, the highest score you can get in a bowling game. But Bill Fong, a happy-go-lucky bowler on the Lucky 8 bowling team in Plano, Texas is trying to prepare for a 900 – that’s three perfect games and 36 consecutive strikes in a row, because apparently ten, twenty or twenty-five strikes in a row just isn’t good enough. Miami-based Joey Daoud is making the [...] Continue »

Yes, it’s true – Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, beating out Latinos and Hispanics. You could even say – according to this local television screen grab from San Francisco’s KRON 4 – that Asians are topping Hispanics for the first time. (Meanwhile, gay Asian Americans everywhere are looking at this and saying to each other “for the first time? Honey, we’ve been topping Hispanics a long, long time ago.” [...] Continue »

Here is something eliminated American Idol contestant HeeJun Han might want to put in his back pocket: before he goes on his American Idols Live tour to such exciting places like Broomfield, Colorado and Jackson, Mississippi, he now has a chance to follow fellow ex-Idol John Kim’s footsteps and participate in Korean Idol equivalent SuperStar K.  Their global preliminary auditions come to LA and New York next month, and with his current experience it would [...] Continue »

From pioneer soundsystem operator Tom ‘The Great Sebastian’ Wong in the 1940s to contemporary dancehall masters Black Chiney, Chinese-Jamaicans have played an integral part in the music scene on the island since even before Jamaica cut its first domestic record in the 1950s. [...] Through extensive original interviews and archival footage, Always Together: Chinese-Jamaicans in Reggae Music weaves together the history of the Chinese immigrants with the little-known stories of these unsung giants. So why [...] Continue »

Remember K-Town, the Jersey Shore wannabe reality show based on Asian Americans? 8Asians blogged the casting of an early promotional reel two years ago, as well as observations about the cast members and even a guest post by the producer, only to have the show slip into what felt like development hell for two years. But this week a PR release has announced that the Tyrese produced project will be released after all on YouTube [...] Continue »

Our internal e-mail lists have us discussing all kinds of stuff: Asian American identity, representation in the media, the experiences of activism in an academia setting and its progression as we transition to the working, adult world. And sometimes, we talk about innocent things. Innocent things like milk and cookies and OMG BOOBIES. Case in point, this delightful internal South Korean ad for the Oreo cookie. Joz: Seems to be real. Also, my problem with [...] Continue »

If you read Yahoo! regularly – which you probably do, if you’re over 35 or previously worked at Yahoo! – you’ve probably seen the article of the mild mannered accountant whose grueling 13 week workout was so intense he became a Tight End for the Miami Dolphins. The person credited for helping him is Brad Ikei, a trainer at BYU and proprietor of Ikei Performance. Because you know the saying: Behind every Miami account who [...] Continue »

It’s hard to fathom that in the mid-90s Marvel was declaring bankruptcy, but look at the comic company now: an entertainment jaggernaut that cranks out box office smashes. And there’s no reason why they should stop at domestic success, as the newest sequel to the Iron Man franchise will be co-produced to a Chinese production company as a way to co-finance and distribute the film. According to an article from the LA Times, Foreign films [...] Continue »

Via Jeff Yang at the Wall Street Journal: “Apparently, more and more Asian Americans are defying convention by… marrying Asian Americans. [...] That’s interesting in and of itself. But it’s the reason given for this fall in Asian American outmarriage rates that really caught both of our eyes. According to Times reporter Rachel Swarns, the reason why younger Asians are choosing to marry other Asians is that they’re experiencing a “resurgence of interest in language [...] Continue »

From Mashable: “Bravo Media announced Wednesday that one of its new reality series will focus on Ben Huh, [ICanHazCheezburger.com]’s CEO, and his “eclectic staff.” The show is tentatively called Huh?.”

From New American Media: “What drove Binh Thai Luc, 35, to be charged this week with slaying five people in a San Francisco home last week? The grisly murders have rocked the city and left investigators and the public searching for a motive. [...] News media reports have suggested that the killer may have been trying to collect on gambling debts. Although gambling addiction affects every group, researchers have found unusually high levels among Asians.”